Pope Carries Out First Canonization on US Soil

Pope Francis blesses greets people inside the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, Sept. 23, 2015, before holding an outdoor mass to canonize Junipero Serra. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Pool via AP)

(Newser)
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In the first canonization on US soil, Pope Francis has elevated to sainthood an 18th-century missionary who brought Catholicism to the American West Coast. Francis canonized Junipero Serra today during a Mass in Washington. Serra was a Franciscan friar who marched north from Baja California with Spanish conquistadors, establishing nine of the 21 missions in what is now California.

The canonization was polarizing. Serra is revered by Catholics for his missionary work, and many Latinos in the US view his canonization as a badly needed acknowledgment of Hispanics' role in the American church. But many Native Americans say Serra enslaved converts and contributed to the spread of disease that wiped out indigenous populations. In July, Francis issued a broad apology for the church's sins against indigenous peoples. (Read more Pope Francis stories.)

Are we such children that we believe the founding of the USA was done by benevolent Angels? Not that it is right, but people were much more cruel as a matter of course in Serra's time. Serra for all his mistakes did make it possible for California to be settled, by setting up those missions which were much more than churches. They were manufacturing outposts that made things people needed to live at the level of civilization that was available then. A saint is not some holy person from the clouds, it is a human that is honored for exemplary fortitude and strength of purpose. Canonization means that person is held up as an example to all humans who come after. It is only the undereducated reactionaries, religion haters, and Catholic haters who don't know this. They have no idea what they grip about, because they have made up their own reasons for things.

Nofun

Sep 24, 2015 1:57 AM CDT

There you go Pinocchio you are real boy now.

Twiny

Sep 24, 2015 12:31 AM CDT

What an epic load of shit. How is it possible for educated people to actually believe this kind of crap?